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Rotel Tours: Travel around the world by hotel bus

The German company Rotel Tours, founded in 1945 by Georg Höltl, was a pioneer in post-war tourist travel. From 1950, she began her first trips abroad. In 1959, it developed innovative tourism by introducing people to the world from the inside of specially designed hotel buses with bedrooms, kitchens and bathrooms. The company uses 4 different types of buses adapted for each type of trip with a passenger capacity varying between 20 and 36 people.


It was in 1969 that its circuits took on another dimension with a circuit of the discovery of the Sahara crossing Algeria from North to South. The legendary trans-Saharan expedition began on November 3, 1969 in Tunisia and ended on December 6 in Accra. The Mercedes bus with a Rotel trailer and a Unimog as escort vehicle covered more than 4000 km. The journey led through sandy deserts and up often blown slopes across the Sahara, the world's largest desert. More than once the desert has become a serious problem, but also a great experience. The lunar landscape of Hoggar, shaped by volcanic basalts, the evenings with the Tuaregs and the friendly inhabitants of the desert, the landscape of Niger, the tropical forests of Dahome, Togo and Ghana and finally the gold coast of West Africa - the trip was an unforgettable experience for the 43 participants. Georg Höltl, founder of the company Rotel Tours and initiator of this trip, personally participated and documented the extraordinary journey of the pioneers with 16 mm film.


Rotel Tours now offers tours all over the world, including: Scandinavia, the USA, Italy, Greece, Turkey, Turkmenistan, Pakistan, India, the Andes, Morocco...